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SanDisk touts read-only SD cards for sensitive data

Something even easier for civil servants to mislay

Flash-fancier SanDisk's mission to eradicate all recording media and replace them with solid-state storage continued today with the release of an SD card you can only write to once.

Dubbed the SD WORM (Write Once Read Many) card, the 128MB device is primarily being pitched at agencies that need to keep data forever and keep it safe from alteration.

That, it said, meant an alternative that's not capable of being rewritten on. It said the SD WORM is "effectively locked as soon as it is recorded - there is no physical way to alter or delete individual recorded files".

It also pledged the cards will completely retain their contents for at least 100 years, provided they're stored "under appropriate storage conditions".

What that state is, SanDisk didn't say. May we suggest at the bottom of a locked filing cabinet in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying 'Beware of the leopard'.

Among the applications for SD WORM: e-voting machines, court proceedings, medical records and aircraft 'black box' recorders. It didn't mention government data, but given how easy it is for the powers that be to lose laptops and CDs, let alone something as small as an SD card, that's probably for the best...